NIBA winter overnighter

[Paul]

Hi Folks,

I just testing the water with this one, is anyone up for a winter minimal kit overnighter? What i mean by minimal is, knife saw axe billycan small length of cord(for bowdrill)  3 layers of clothing (all natural fibre no gortex etc) and thats it. shelter must be made from natural material, food must be foraged and fire must be made by bow drill or handdrill.

Any interests?

Paul

[Celt_Ginger]

You know I've been harping on about doing this for ages. the only change I would suggest though is perhaps being able to light the fire with other means (except matches or lighters) as it is winter and a fire will be essential.

[RedLeader]

Sounds like a fun idea. However I think it's the sort of thing I'd like to work up to. Maybe a lightweight winter bivvying weekend first followed by trying to last a night in a shelter with no sleeping bag.

[Nightjar]

Sound like a good idea. I would prefer however to take  food and  sleeping bag/bivvy bag as I still am in the learning stage of bushcraft. I would like to try cooking caught/shot game, and firelighting using firesteels etc. 

[Nightjar]

Another idea

We could simply turn up and use whatever level of kit we individually choose..........

[chris]

sounds interesting paul. do you have to be into bush craft to go?

[Paul]

i take on board all the comments and this isnt really for the bushcraft beginner. Taking objects to light the fire and to sleep in takes away from the essence of this type of overnighter. All lot of people are used to their own creature comforts when it comes to staying out my idea was to remove all these and let some people experience real minimal kit camping. It is hard work and it can be uncomfortable though it you will be warm enough even without a fire and you certainly wont starve even if you find no food. I have picked winter because if you can do it in winter you can do it at anytime of the year. Maybe this type of overnighter is a bit extreme for some and it should be shelved till you who are new to bushcrafting get some more experience? Let me know and we will get a date sorted.

[chris]

why do you have to be into bushcrafting to do this? surely it would be good experience for anyone...

[Paul]

Well Chris when most people talk about fire by friction or wild shelters they think of the collective name bushcraft. Personally i think it should be woodcraft as im not australian LOL. This is open to anyone, do you practice bushcraft yourself mate??

[chris]

nope, and I dont really have any interest in it. But i do quite fancy the idea of trying to survive for a night with no gear. I'd be more bear grylls than ray mears.

[Paul]

OK well it probably wouldn't be your thing then, we are more boring ray mears style than exciting bear grylls! LOL!

[chris]

i know that but for this sounds interesting. I like the ideas of making shelters, lighting fires etc. Pretty much the stuff bear does.

[Paul]

Have you lit a fire using bowdrill before?

[chris]

no but as i said i'm not really into bushcraft, i carry a firesteel! I dont overly see the point in making life dificult for yourself.

[Celt_Ginger]

We do this sort of thing to test ourselves. That's why we would use minimal kit for this type of event. Most people have no idea how much hard work it is building a shelter. It takes hours of back breaking labour to make a good one that will keep you warm and dry. Gathering food, fire wood, making improvements to the shelter, making water safe etc etc is a constant ongoing task. An event like this is probably not for the weekend hiker. You would definately need a possitive mental attitude. It probably isn't something that the armchair adventurer would enjoy as the reality is very different than what you see on the telly. We can become very complacent with all our modern gear, but how would we cope if we had a catastrofic failure of that gear in a wild place? To me, learning how to cope in a practicle sense is more important than just reading about how someone else did it in a book or watching it on TV.
I'm totally with you in not making life difficult for myself. I have some gear that I hate to be without, but I also want to have some experience of how to cope if I do end up without it. That's why, every once in a while, it's good to go without.